Dear Parents,
Hari Om!
Welcome to the second balavihar class of the year!
In the interest of some new students, who started today, the curriculum and the events of our class scheduled for the year 2023-24 was debriefed.
The curriculum for this grade comprises 2 books, the great epic, Ramayana and Key to Success. The goals of this class are to acquaint the children with the values of the Hindu religion by grade curriculum accompanied by Chinmaya slokas, bhajans, and Geeta chanting. We will explore how the Ramayana molded, not only the characters, but the civilization of the world for the first part of the BV year.
The Ramayana is one of the greatest epics of Hindus written by the sage Valmiki. The underlying messages conveyed are the values and ideals, particularly in relation to duty, morality and social responsibility. This epic is a great pillar of Dharma, which supports our experience of our own humanity. It is "victory of dharma (good) over adharma (evil)". It teaches us how to live a dharmic life, which finally leads to liberation.
The second book "Key to success" is an odyssey of mind that uses the analogy of Chariot. Sri Rama used it to enlighten Vibhishana about inner preparation for the battle.
This year the students will learn to chant chapter 4 of Bhagavad Geeta for the Geeta chanting competition in April, and they will give a "mini" stage performance In April on stage at the ashram. iIn the month of May, the class will perform an Annadanam at the soup kitchen, as a service assignment. A very full year, indeed!
Adding additional dimensions to the learning, we will include many in person and online games, discussions, videos, enactments and other creative activities to reinforce each week's theme. We hope to enhance our classroom learning even further with a field trip as well, if time permits. We encourage each student to participate fully and actively in all activities. Again, for the children to get the full benefits of this program, we encourage them to participate actively, and to strive to attend all the sessions for the year. Every year students with perfect attendance will receive a Special Recognition Award at the annual graduation ceremony.
As an added bonus, we have a blog for the seventh grade written by teachers itself. We encourage you to check it out frequently for class information and updates. The blog can be found at:
https://cmnjparentportal23-24.blogspot.com/
Please note that we would like each child to bring a Balavihar folder, a "My Prayers" book, pencil/pen, and a "Fat Little Book" (or a composition book) for Likhita Japa, in his/her Balavihar bag.
Looking forward to a great Balavihar year with our students!
Balavihar Class on 9/17/2023
Our class opened up with Pranayama- breathing exercises, the chanting of OM 3 times, and daily prayers including: Sahanaavavatu, Vakarathunda, Karaagre vasate Lakshmi, Saraswati namastubhyam, Gurubrahma, Brahmaarpanam, Shubhamkaroti, Kara-charana. ( My prayers, green book pages 11, 12)
Then the class was taught bhajan " Prema mudita mana se kaho" ( My prayers green book 144)
Next we stood up and stretched for a few minutes.
Later, we moved on to explore the authenticity of the Ramayana. The class watched this very interesting 7 minute video clip of Ramayana being Itihasa (history) rather than Mythology.
The video explained that several of the key events of the Ramayana are properly dated in relation to each other using the cosmic alignments given within it. It also spoke about how several other cultures used variations of Rama's name and described heroes similar to him.
Students were given a brief introduction and were advised to buy the Ramayana by Rajagopalachari from Amazon. It's a great book and we encouraged them to read a few chapters before coming to the class. We also told our students that they can also borrow from the senior students as well!
We quickly recollected the Ratnakara story, who later became sage Valmiki through Narada, and narrated how he was moved by the Krauncha birds episode, Valmeeki's curse of the hunter then the sorrow (soka) leading to the verse (sloka) and the composition of Ramayana.
Before we started Rama's story, we had a brainstorming session with our students: who is a hero for them or how do they define a hero?
The class came up with interesting answers, along with the fictional characters as superheroes examples, including Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, and Captain America, historical legends such as Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King to Lebron James, Malaela, Kate Davis and more. They were told to think about Sages & Swamiji's who work for the welfare of the society giving up their worldly pleasures, and also their parents who can be considered to be heroes at times as they do countless things and make sacrifices to raise them.
Then we brought their attention to explore Rama, a historical figure and an epic hero and his journey captured in the great epic Ramayana. We consider Rama a great hero, who lived his whole life by the rules of dharma. The story of RAMA is the story of an ideal son, an ideal brother, an ideal husband, an ideal friend and an ideal king. He is known to be kind, affectionate, empathetic, noble, generous, fearless, simple and free from flamboyance. Sri RAMA is widely known and revered by Hindus as "Maryada Purushottama "
Many of our students either did not know Rama's story or forgot, so we started narrating it with Rama's birth.
Ayodhya, which means that which cannot be conquered, was the capital city of Kosala, situated beside the Sarayu river,was a beautiful well planned city with forts and was ruled by a great king Dasharatha of the solar dynasty. His three wives- Kausalya, Sumitra, and Kaikeyi, dearly loved, had no sons to inherit his throne so was in deep sorrow, consulted his guru Vasishta, on his advice performed Pushtta Kaameshetti yaaga, led by Rishyashringa.
At the same time Devas held a conference in the Swargaloka or the heaven as rakshasa Ravana was growing more powerful, employing devas as per his wishes became a threat to Devas and mankind as well. Lord Brahma and Devas went to Vaikunta to see lord Vishnu and appealed to him about rakshasa Ravana, and the boon he had obtained from Brahma and the omission as well. Lord Vishnu assured them he would be born to Dasharatha as his son Rama and will slay rakshasa Ravana.
At the end of the Dashratha's yaaga, the god of fire, Agni deva emerged holding a golden bowl in his hand, which had payasam and the king's wives were asked to drink the special payasam in the bowl. The king was happy, asked his eldest queen Kausalya to drink half of the payasam, gave half to Sumitra and a part was left to Kaikeyi, and he asked Sumitra to drink the remaining in the golden bowl. So Sumitra got two parts of payasam. Soon four sons were born to Dasharatha. Kausalya gave birth to Rama, who was the incarnation of Vishnu, Bharata was born to Kaikeyi, Sumitra became the mother of the twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna (as had partaken the divine payasam two times). King Dasharatha loved all his four sons, but Rama was the apple of his eye.
We ended Rama's story here, as the students were eagerly waiting to play a 4 corners game as announced, with important names - Dasaratha, his wives and children, that they needed to remember. They had a ball with it.
As we will be learning chapter 4 of Bhagavad Gita this year, we watched a video on Sanskrit Chanting Primer and repeated the sounds along.. This is to familiarize kids with transliteration of characters in Sanskrit.
We had an interesting class today. As always, we concluded with Aarti and Pledge in the assembly.
Stay tuned until next!
Pranaams,
Devender & Vyjayanti
